1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system and to a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation program. More specifically, the present invention relates to a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system and to a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation program with which the cost of maintenance can be easily and accurately estimated.
2. Background Information
Fishing gear products such as reels having a comparatively complicated structure exist and maintenance services such as overhaul and fault repair of such products are being offered. Such maintenance services are ordinarily performed as described below.
First, a person who orders maintenance (e.g. the owner) of an article brings the article to a distributor, fills in an order form, and hands over the article to the distributor. The product is sent from the distributor to the manufacturer. The manufacturer performs a maintenance operation on the article according to the maintenance form. For example, in the case of overhaul, the article undergoes disassembly, cleaning, inspection, and so on, and a part is replaced if necessary. In the case of failure repair, an examination for ascertaining the cause of a failure and replacement of a part are performed. In either case, the article that has undergone maintenance operations is delivered back to the distributor. The person who orders maintenance (e.g. the owner/orderer) pays for the cost of maintenance to the distributor and receives the article (see non-patent document 1:
A person who orders maintenance as described above usually wants to know the cost necessary for maintenance in advance. However, it is difficult to compute the cost necessary for maintenance of an article before the article is sent to the manufacturer and disassembled, i.e., before the conditions of internal parts are checked by the manufacturer.
Parts price tables and standard technical maintenance fee tables are being made public in catalogs and on internet web pages. However, it is difficult to determine which part will be actually replaced. For example, information for various models of reels are being provided. Different models require different replacement parts of various prices. Therefore, the cost of a maintenance process cannot be easily determined before the completion of the maintenance process, and it is difficult to predict the maintenance cost.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system and to a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation program. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.